Cong Burn has announced an update to its sequencer, sampler, synthesizer and groovebox app Strokes to v3.12, adding a new performance mode which enables you smoothly interpolate, transition and morph between sounds, sequences, patterns and even project files.
Performance mode enables the user to transition between sounds, sequences, patterns and even different projects. Instead of simply jumping from one pattern (and one set of sounds, samples and parameters) to the next, Strokes enables us interpolate two patterns using a kind of meta-crossfader that smoothly blends a number of different parameters together simultaneously, rather than blending two audio signals. It’s a neat function that we haven’t seen in many other tools of this kind.
The plugin’s samplers have also been re-engineered to offer five sub-samplers, meaning different samples can now be used within each pattern that’s sequenced. Strokes’ effects capabilities have also been bolstered, with the addition of a bus saturator and glue compressor joining the onboard reverb and delay.
Strokes is available now as a VST3/AU plugin for Mac and PC and costs £35. It is also available for iOS as a standalone app or AUv3 plugin for £19.99. Cross-platform bundle for £45
Knobcon organizers have announced that their guest of honor for Knobcon 11, being held September 8-10, 2023 at the Hyatt Regency Schaumburg, Chicago, will be pioneering modular performer Doug McKechnie.
McKechnie helped pioneer live modular synth performance, starting in 1968, playing live with one of the first Moog modular systems. Between 1968 and 1972, McKechnie gigged with the Moog modular synthesizer, doing solo performances in the Bay Area. He made history as the first person to play a Moog synthesizer at a rock festival, the Altamont Speedway Free Festival.
While some of his performances were recorded, they were never officially available until 2020, with the release of San Francisco Moog: 1968-72:
Listening to them now, the performances sound like precursors to the some of the music that came out of Germany in the mid 1970s. And they make you wonder how electronic music history might have been very different if there had been more of an audience for it at the time in the US.
At Knobcon, McKechnie will be featured in an interview and AMA, moderated by Suit & Tie Guy. He will also be the Guest of Honor at Knobcon’s ‘Golden Knob’ Banquet. The Banquet is an optional add-on for attendees, and features a catered buffet with vegetarian options, a raffle, a presentation and live music. View the event website for details.
The Woovebox is a micro music workstation – pocket groovebox, synthesizer, sequencer, sampler + drum machine – that its developers all ‘the smallest all-in-one micro music workstation on the planet.’
Woovebox features 16-part multi-timbral synthesis, sequencing and sampling, USB and wireless connectivity, 10 hours of battery life and more.
Features:
Synthesizer
16 part multi-timbral / 16 tracks (1 x 4-voice polyphonic track + 15 x 4-voice paraphonic or mono tracks)*
16 versatile synthesis algorithms
17 low-aliasing oscillator models + up to 256 user samples
Virtual Analog, FM, Super Saw, AM, RingMod, x0x percussion, more
2 oscillator models per voice
1 multi-mode filter per voice (10 filter types)
2 x AEG, FEG, multiple LFOs per voice
global multi-FX; reverb, stereo chorus, 2 x stereo delay
per-voice FX; distortion, saturation, bit crushing, resampling, global multi-FX sends
